Month: October 2011

Could encouraging citizens’ use of electronics be an effective means for cities and counties to deal with their economic woes?

Consider the following facts:

As the end of 2011 nears, cities are struggling with cuts to budgets, programs, and services; and, even, furloughs and layoffs of staff.

More and more citizens are utilizing the latest electronic gadgets (iPhone, iPad, or Android) to get their news, read or listen to a favorite book, trade on the stock market, or use GPS functions for directions.

Introducing:

City Web Portals: City web portals are an efficient way to handle applications and requests. Citizens benefit by no longer having to find time to phone or visit city hall. There is no need to track email correspondence sent to a city department to apply for a permit or license, or a request that the city take care of some graffiti in the neighborhood park. Communities benefit when, from the city web site, applications are completed by engaging the citizens to do the data entry, not a city staff person. An on-line payment via credit card makes it convenient for both citizens and their communities. Think of it as a virtual city hall.

Engaged Citizens are Happy Citizens: As a concerned citizen, does it drive you crazy when you see something that requires the city’s attention? Have you sent emails, phoned city hall, and yet the situation does not change? Visiting the city’s web portal can simplify life by making requests and receiving updates all through one site. Cities can automate requests from the back-end as it routes to the proper official within minutes, not days.

Communication Boards: In addition to the traditional approach of citizens attending council meetings or town halls to present a request, cities should consider offering communication boards. These on-line bulletin boards create chat communities to share ideas initiated by citizens or officials. On-line surveys or opinion polls offer valuable information from a larger base of the community which enhances opportunities for better decision making. Boards can also be used to find a few interested citizens for an effective on-line committee.

Consider FTG Connect®! FastTrackGov®is the avenue you and your community should consider to create a powerful team. This subscription-based solution for a web portal assists cities in engaging their citizens on-line via their web sites with low overhead expenses. FastTrackGov allows a community to configure its applications to the city ordinances. The web site portal will accept payments for licenses, permits, or other fees. On-line messaging can be tracked and reviewed by both officials and citizens. To learn more, visit www.fasttrackgov.com.

St. Louis, Missouri (October 25, 2011) – Mitchell Humphrey & Co., a provider of software solutions and services to the public sector for over 34 years, held their annual User Group conference in St. Louis in September.Each year, at this conference, Mitchell Humphrey & Co. takes the opportunity to reveal new and exciting products and updates to clients and users. Their conference began by opening with a discussion about the economy and how businesses and governmental organizations are adjusting to the new normal.

Known for their cutting-edge and innovative software solutions, Mitchell Humphrey & Co. took this opportunity to discuss their solutions and how they are helping clients as they find it necessary to do more with fewer resources. These topics included the upcoming November 2011 release of FMS 2011 and their future development plans for a new Financial Management System called FMS III.

Unveiling Plans for FMS III

At the 2011 User Group conference, Mitchell Humphrey announced that it has begun designing FMS III, a new generation of its Financial Management System (FMS II). The FMS III solution will include all of the robust functionality of FMS II while focusing on simplicity for both power and casual users.

“Our focus is to make it easier for people to find a software solution flexible enough to meet even the most complex organizational requirements, but still easy to use and completely upgradable,” added Kim Schaefer, President and Chief Operating Officer for Mitchell Humphrey.

Mitchell Humphrey started its product design by creating an updated and familiar look to the tabs, sidebars, and the Ribbon directly relating to the Microsoft Office® user interface. Through FMS III, users will immediately experience the comfort and ease of navigation identified in all of the new designs, functions, and features. “It is important to add simplicity to each user’s experience and FMS III gives us that opportunity,” commented Schaefer.

Since FMS III is especially designed for organizations with both power and casual users, the new system design will include many enhancements to core functionality in areas like use tax and retainage set up, helping its users save time through better organization. In addition, FMS III will offer newly enhanced functions and flexibility to recurring invoices, through accounts payable and receivable collections.

Plans to announce the first phase completion of FMS III are expected during the 2012 Users Group conference in Las Vegas. Future plans for the system software include a SharePoint dashboard, alerts, detail transaction inquiry rewrites, a web-based query tool, and a web interface for distributed functions, such as budgets and purchasing.

Release of FMS 2011

During the 2011 Users Group conference,Mitchell Humphrey also announced plans to release FMS 2011 in November of this year. The FMS 2011 solution benefits its users directly through bank reconciliation, new security maintenance, and secure attachment types. The product increases system management capabilities to add out-of-date warnings to the user interface, the ability to configure DayStart to truncate and save error logs, and features a viewer to display the client software version. With its heightened security and added simplicity, FMS 2011 provides an enhanced user experience while satisfying stringent technical support requirements.

In addition, Mitchell Humphrey has redesigned the FMS Exec module and enhanced ASK FMS. The newly designed FMS Exec module provides easier and more secure access to importing and exporting data between FMS and Microsoft Excel. The newly enhanced ASK FMS product includes new dashboards and allows users to store and run multiple reports at the same time on their desktops.

Users found that the MHUG 2011 conference seminars offered new resources and provided them with ways to be more effective. Additionally, they were able to gain information and give valuable feedback on the release plans for both FMS 2011 and FMS III.

“The seminars at MHUG (Mitchell Humphrey User Group conference) were very valuable. The City of Surprise sent six staff members to make sure all of the sessions were attended and the consensus was that these seminars definitely will help us with more efficient ways of conducting business,” said Art Urquidez, City of Surprise, Arizona.

Furthermore, the company reported on their success of offering Client Road Show visits, which have been used to demonstrate how clients can maximize the value of their investment in technology and to gather information for the FMS III project. “The Road Show visit was exactly what we needed. We found many things that will save us time and money. Their visit made us aware of all the capabilities of FMS and we immediately worked with Mitchell Humphrey to implement some changes in how we process certain transactions,” noted Art Urquidez, City of Surprise, Arizona.

MHUG Enhances Client’s Knowledge

“My name is Tracy Morrison from the Virginia Department of Veterans Services. I am the Finance Director for one of our Veterans Care Centers. I have been using FMS for four years now. FMS allows us to seamlessly interface with our state-mandated system and is easy for our staff to use in their daily tasks. We have worked closely with several Mitchell Humphrey representatives to develop accrual basis financial reports which are required by nursing home regulations. We are very pleased with the level of customer service we have received from a very knowledgeable Mitchell Humphrey staff. We would recommend them to other entities that are looking for a more powerful software solution that is customizable for their individual needs. The annual User Group meeting is a great way to meet other users to share best practices.” Tracy Morrison, Finance Director, Virginia Department of Veterans Services

Since 1977, Mitchell Humphrey has been providing software and services to clients in both the public and private sectors. Today, clients across North America benefit from our solutions in citizen services, accounting, human resources/payroll, community development, and cashiering. Learn more about Mitchell Humphrey by visiting our web sites at www.mitchellhumphrey.com and/or www.fasttrackgov.com.

St. Louis, Missouri (October 13, 2011) – Mitchell Humphrey, a provider of solutions and services to the public sector for over 34 years and a Microsoft® Silver Independent Software Vendor, launches FastTrackGovon Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. This upgrade to FastTrackGovenables many user interface functionalities and improvements within the newest version of CRM (Constituent Relationship Management).

FastTrackGov is a suite of products designed specifically for government and intended to facilitate communication between government and their constituents. It provides for a completely integrated organization and can be used by county governments, municipal governments, government agencies, special districts, and taxing authorities. Whether a citizen needs to apply for a new business license, request an inspection, complain about a pothole, or pay their fees, they can use FastTrackGov and the FTG Connect® Citizen Portal to easily communicate with their local government.

With the CRM 2011 product release in February 2011, Microsoft has introduced dialogs, built-in charting, and dashboard functionality. Within CRM 2011,Mitchell Humphrey has developedFastTrackGov using the newest technology, features and functions. These features include the new Microsoft Office Ribbon®interface, detailed attachments, advanced field-level security and new audit capabilities. FastTrackGov’snew Microsoft Office Ribbon UI provides a more exciting and logical way for users to discover features and functions – enhancing their overall performance. In addition to FastTrackGov’s attachments capability, CRM 2011 provides document management integration into Microsoft SharePoint®.

With the delivery of high performance technology, Mitchell Humphrey offers an array of FastTrackGov services to meet the specific needs of each government organization and their citizens. “The familiarity of CRM provides the best possible user experience for our FastTrackGovclients and their citizens. Plus, we are able to offer them the choice of a traditional on-premise deployment or the agility and speed of the cloud,” stated Kim Schaefer, President and Chief Operating Officer for Mitchell Humphrey.

“Our partner, Mitchell Humphrey, has a long-standing reputation for delivering high-value, low cost, and cutting-edge software solutions to public sector organizations throughout North America,” said Amir Capriles, Senior Director for Microsoft Dynamics® CRM and ERP U.S. Public Sector. “In choosing to develop their FastTrackGov solutions on our CRM 2011 platform, Mitchell Humphrey validates our strategy of offering a platform that enables our partners to easily design applications that meet the needs of specific markets. Through our partnership with Mitchell Humphrey, we have been able to provide countless benefits to many government organizations.”

Since 1977, Mitchell Humphrey has been providing software and services to clients in both the public and private sectors. Today, clients across North America benefit from our solutions in citizen services, accounting, human resources/payroll, community development, and cashiering.

Approximately 3,000 participants attended sessions on the “new” normal – creating a technological environment for communities to begin easily interacting with their citizens.

The ICMA Conference was an avenue for city and county officials to learn more about streamlining citizen requests through a web portal. This tool allows a citizen to log a complaint on-line about anything from an abandoned house where the grass has not been mowed to graffiti in the park. The city automates the request in the back-end as it is routed to the proper official and updates are made within minutes, not days. Citizens can then receive updates by visiting the portal.

Another great technology showcased was the ability to conduct on-line surveys to determine the popularity of an idea. In addition to the traditional approach of citizens attending council meetings or town halls to present a request, officials were encouraged to consider offering communication boards. This has shown to be a great way to enhance meetings or to find interested citizens for an effective on-line committee. Participants were reminded that having information from more of their constituents would make it easier to make good, informed decisions.

ICMA was a perfect venue for Mitchell Humphrey. We introduced FastTrackGov® to city managers and administrators. This solution helps government organizations use technology to better connect with and serve their constituents. The FTG Connect® web portal allows cities to accept payments for licenses, permits, or other fees. FastTrackGov allows a community to configure its applications to the city ordinances. On-line messaging can be used to track conversations by both officials and citizens. To learn more, visit www.fasttrackgov.com.